Chapter 37: Let Think About How to Beat You Up Today
A dark figure squeezed out from the cracks in the wall, spreading across the floor like a spill of ink. It began to rise, slowly, until it blanketed the entire room.
Heni stumbled back several steps in fright. She could not make out the creature within the black ink.
She frantically dug a box of matches out from her chest pocket and moved to strike one.
She had barely scraped out a tiny fla when, before she could even lift her gaze, the darkness snuffed it out in an instant.
"Why……are you back again……"
"Once or twice of mockery……is that not enough?"
Heni asked. Her composure was on the verge of breaking entirely.
The dark ink-shadow fell silent, and simply stared at her.
Just stared at her.
As though it had seen straight through to what lay in Heni's heart, it split open a gaping maw, black as ink, and spoke. Its voice poured into Heni's ears like so bewitching curse.
"I know what you need, little girl."
"Stay right here and wait for ."
The voice cut off abruptly. The darkness filling the room vanished in the sa instant the voice ceased.
The entire office returned to absolute silence.
Heni lifted her head. She sank to her knees, drained of all strength, her face unreadable.
***
Before long, the ink-shadow that had just vanished returned.
The suffocating black ink flooded back and filled the room once more.
It moved like a breath of wind, passing freely in and out of the Mage Tower.
Heni raised her head and looked at the ink-shadow—then suddenly froze.
Only now did it occur to her: this was the Mage Tower.
Only those with clearance could co and go freely.
So why was this ink-shadow able to appear here?
Before she could think on it any further, the ink-shadow before her began to take on a discernible shape.
She could not make out exactly what the thing was, but she could vaguely see the monster split its enormous mouth wide open, then ram an arm violently down its own throat and begin to stir.
After a series of wet, glug glug sounds, the ink-shadow extended a massive hand.
From deep within its own stomach, it drew out 3 orbs of light—glowing like a cluster of hope in the midst of Heni's despair.
"Little girl," the ink-shadow spoke, and what followed was a grotesque, wet sound, "mmm……urgh……slp slp slp……"
"You need power, don't you?"
"I……"
Heni trembled faintly. She did not even know what was happening, nor did she spare any thought for how revolting the thing before her was.
"Co now—this is the power you need."
"Touch it, and it is yours."
Heni had a deep sense that sothing was terribly wrong, yet every word from the ink-shadow felt saturated with overwhelming temptation.
As though guided by so invisible hand, she reached out and touched one of the orbs of light.
The ink-shadow's grin stretched wider still.
***
Early the next morning, Viktor stepped off the Carriage and stood at the Academy's entrance.
He was back.
Back at this Academy after such a long absence.
In truth, had Leah not been furiously shouting at him first thing in the morning and driving him out the door, Viktor had been perfectly prepared to spend another morning at ho.
Should I just send her back to the Territory?
Viktor turned the thought over in his mind, then imdiately abandoned it.
Even if he sent her back, Leah would inevitably keep going back and forth between the Royal Capital and the Territory over business matters. She would still find ways to chide him either way.
Viktor walked into the Academy and felt a gaze sweep across him.
That was the Principal's spell—【Natural Sparrow】.
Back when he was a 3rd-Tier Mage, Viktor had been unable to sense this natural force.
Now that he had advanced to the 4th Tier, he could clearly detect the dissonant magical current drifting through the air.
Viktor tilted his head back toward the sky. Countless Natural Sparrows wove through the Academy.
The Principal's gaze blanketed the Academy entire.
The sweep left him almost imdiately. His identity had presumably been confird.
The Imperial side had already issued an announcent declaring Duke Livi and Viktor innocent of all charges.
Of course, the entire sequence of events—from the volcano's near-eruption to its resolution—was known only to a small number of nobles.
So Viktor's return did not cause any great stir at the Academy.
Viktor walked along the path with natural ease, paying the gazes of those around him no mind, entirely absorbed in thinking through how to resu his upcoming lessons.
The students passing by Viktor had all been cheerfully welcoming the new day—until they caught sight of Viktor and his expression like still, dead water.
They stopped dead in their tracks, and even their speech ca out garbled.
Viktor had absolutely no awareness of what kind of ntal upheaval his appearance was putting the surrounding students through.
"Who is that? What terrifying pressure……"
"I know—when he walked past , I nearly thought he was going to drain all my magic……"
One student yanked the others away and hissed under their breath with great urgency:
"Are you out of your minds!? That is Viktor Clavena! Whatever you do, do not let him hear us talking about him!"
"He……he's that infamous bastard Mage!?"
"So frightening……"
Viktor walked through the campus, wearing his poker face, breathing in the fresh air of the grounds.
Before long, he ca across sothing unpleasant.
A commotion up ahead caught his attention.
It was the student dormitories.
A crowd of students had gathered at the entrance, and 3 students with ashen, darkened complexions were being carried out unconscious from inside.
"Sothing is off."
Weija murmured a warning in Viktor's ear.
"These unconscious students—they have lost their magic."
Hearing Weija's words, Viktor needed a source of information, and so his gaze landed on soone wearing a white coat.
That was the Academy's school physician.
The surrounding students felt a chill pass through them as they watched a figure walk over.
"What happened?"
Viktor's voice rang out. The school physician turned around, spotted Viktor, and lurched back in fright, his glasses tumbling off.
Viktor bent down, picked them up, and handed them back.
The school physician naturally knew who Viktor was—setting aside his notorious reputation, the highly influential recent incident circulating among the Royal Capital's nobles had been connected to him entirely.
And yet this man, whom everyone had believed guilty, had been declared innocent by the Imperial family.
Many Mages who did not know the truth could not accept it.
But one's own life still ca first, so he still had to treat Viktor with outward courtesy.
"Viktor……Professor, what brings you here?"
"Answer my question."
Viktor's expressionless face made the physician flinch again.
The school physician explained in a flustered rush: "There is nothing wrong with these students' physical condition, yet they are unconscious—apparently in a state from which they are struggling to wake. These 3 are from the sa dormitory room. No one knows what happened; by the ti the students from the next room found them, they were already like this."
"We are planning to take them to the clinic for a magical examination to see if anything turns up."
Viktor gave a nod, stepped aside, and the physician hurried away with visible relief.
Clearly, these people have no idea what happened.
With no one nearby, Viktor turned his thoughts to Weija.
"Absorbing another person's magic—a filthy trick like that brings that kind of impurity to mind imdiately."
"It seems they are infiltrating faster than expected."
What Weija was referring to was, naturally, the demons.
Viktor could not help feeling a little resigned. He had only just returned to the Academy and was already walking into sothing like this.
Still.
"If the demons have shown up, I might as well deal with them while I am at it."
Aside from the way these creatures dragged one's mood down with their very presence.
They were still Experience Points, at the end of the day.
Viktor paid it no further mind and made his way back to his office with Weija.
【Identity verification successful—Professor Viktor, welco back to the Mage Tower.】
After verification at the Mage Tower entrance, the Teleportation Formation lit up, and Viktor stepped into his office.
The office was more or less the sa as when he had left it. The only difference was that the pot of flowers on the windowsill was gone.
That had been the flower Heni gave him. Heni was quite fond of it herself, and she often used watering it on his behalf as an excuse to co and go from the Mage Tower.
"Brought it back to her room to look after it, I suppose."
With Viktor gone these past few days, Heni naturally had no reason to co to the office.
Going in and out of the Mage Tower so frequently when it was also such a distance away—bringing the flower back to tend to it herself saved her the trouble of all that back and forth.
He settled into his chair. A few books were missing from his desk.
Those, too, had been Heni's—left here in the office, books she had read countless tis over, which she would always bring out to flip through whenever she had a spare mont.
Viktor thought nothing of it, just as he had with the flower. He found a ready explanation for the missing books as well.
With no need to co to the office, she had naturally taken the books back with her.
He pulled out the magic to he had not quite finished from yesterday and read as he idled away the ti.
He sat there like that all the way until midday.
The pages turned with a soft fsh, fsh, quiet and unhurried.
Weija had been dozing on the desk when its head knocked against the surface with a bump, jolting it awake.
"Hmm? Oh—she hasn't co……"
Midday was the ti Heni visited the Mage Tower most frequently.
She almost always ca with that thick book of hers, and would tell Viktor, with great delight, about the lessons she had written that day.
She invariably woke the sleeping Weija in the process.
So waking up at around this hour had beco sothing of a habit for Weija.
And this ti—Heni had not co.
Weija glanced over at Viktor. He had not lifted his head, and was still turning pages, seeming absorbed in his own world.
Weija suddenly rembered—the news of Viktor's return to the Academy was probably still unknown to that little girl.
Not that it particularly cared. A wave of drowsiness washed over it, and it nodded off again.
Ti always seed to pass with surprising speed while asleep.
By the afternoon, the sun's faint light slanted through the window, stretching shadows long across the floor.
"Weija, ti to go."
"Hmm? Go where?"
The roused Crow blinked, still bleary, and in its half-awake haze saw Viktor close his book.
"It is ti for class."
"Ah, right."
Weija spread its wings and took its place on Viktor's shoulder.
Honestly, it was rather looking forward to the afternoon.
When that timid little girl caught sight of Viktor—what reaction would she have?
Would she bolt like a startled fawn?
Would she look away in flustered embarrassnt?
Or perhaps she would rush over to Viktor in a burst of excitent, beaming and bouncing on her heels, and say:
"Professor Viktor! You are finally back!"
Whichever it turned out to be—in Weija's view, it was bound to be entertaining.
The Teleportation Formation descended around Viktor.
The pair vanished from inside the Mage Tower.
When they reappeared, they were already in the corridor of the teaching building.
The corridor was deserted, with only the faint sounds of other classes in session drifting through now and then.
Viktor's footsteps rang out crisp and clear in the quiet.
Tap—tap—tap—
"Now, building on the foundation of this Formation, we……"
Suddenly, Viktor's footsteps stopped.
His gaze grew deep and unreadable as he looked ahead.
That was where Class 1 was. And inside—a Professor's voice was in the middle of a lesson.
Weija looked straight ahead as well, its single eye fixed forward, its voice devoid of all feeling.
"Now that is not good at all—"
Tap—tap—tap—
The footsteps resud. And this ti, they were heavier than before.
At last, Viktor arrived at the classroom door.
The voice from inside ca through clearer now.
He pushed the door open.
All at once, the entire room fell silent.
"Who enters without knocking during class ti……"
The voice cut off abruptly, shrill and unpleasant—like a duck being grabbed by the throat.
Viktor's gaze moved toward the source of the voice.
It locked onto the figure standing at the lectern.
"What a dead ringer for a pig……"
Weija muttered into his ear.
Viktor did not respond. Perhaps that was tacit agreent.
His face was expressionless. His voice was flat.
And yet it carried within it an anger that words could not quite capture.
"Let think—your na is Dewen……"
"Dewen Rether—correct?"
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